Subject areaChannels and tools
ByteDance is the Chinese technology group that controls TikTok, the short-video social network, and Douyin, its version for the Chinese market.
The name matters to marketers because a platform and the group that owns it answer to different rules and decisions: the company buying advertising deals with TikTok, while legal obligations also fall on the group.
In the European Union the Commission designated ByteDance a gatekeeper (a company that controls access to digital customers) in September 2023, under the Digital Markets Act (the European regulation on large digital platforms), with TikTok among the services concerned.
Source: Regolamento (UE) 2022/1925 (Digital Markets Act); Commissione europea, designazione di ByteDance come gatekeeper del 6 settembre 2023.
An example
The case below is constructed, because the term does not yet appear in the articles. A bank considering a TikTok campaign asks its legal department to check the supplier's obligations. The department reads the European designation addressed to ByteDance, because the rules concern the group that controls the platform.
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Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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